More than 700 migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean on board makeshift boats were rescued over the weekend, especially off Malta and Libya, the NGO SOS Méditerranée announced on Sunday.
Since Saturday, six rescues have been carried out in international waters, the last of which, Sunday afternoon, helped to rescue 106 people in an overloaded boat off Malta, announced the European NGO SOS Mediterranean whose head office is in Marseille.
The boat in distress had been spotted by the ship of the German NGO Sea-Watch.
"
The youngest survivor of this operation is only three months old,
" said SOS Méditerranée, charterer of the Ocean Viking, which took in these migrants.
A "
perilous
"
rescue
This operation came just hours after the Ocean Viking as well as the boats of Sea-Watch and the German NGO ResQship came to the aid during the night from Saturday to Sunday to more than 400 people in distress in the central Mediterranean.
This particularly "
perilous
"
rescue
, which lasted until the early hours of the morning, made it possible to rescue people in a large wooden boat that was taking water, a spokesperson for SOS Mediterranean told AFP.
The survivors were then distributed to the Sea-Watch3 and the Ocean Viking to receive treatment in particular.
Since Saturday, the Ocean Viking has been in its sixth rescue operation.
The ship, which had already taken in 196 people during various rescues off Libya on Saturday, now has 555 survivors on board with the two operations on Sunday.
Among them are at least 28 women, two of whom are pregnant, and 81 minors, including 66 unaccompanied, had specified during his penultimate SOS Mediterranean rescue.
It is not yet determined in which "
safe
"
port
these people can disembark.
Despite persistent insecurity, Libya remains an important crossing point for tens of thousands of migrants each year seeking to reach Europe via the Italian coast, some 300 km from the Libyan coast.
